Diesel prices - Page 19 - Montana Owners Club

Waynem · 04-09-2008, 04:42 AM

It is whatever the market will bear.

skypilot · 04-09-2008, 12:24 PM

Well, AAA announced that 'average' price per gallon of Unleaded was 3.34 or something like that at lunch today; stations here in town all went from 3:25 to 3:30 about 1 PM. Haven't been by our local diesel retailers but I imagine they will go up as well -- now that they know we'll buy it when it is almost a dollar more than gasoline

..

c214dick · 04-09-2008, 01:01 PM

What I've noticed here is that the diesel prices have either dropped a little or stayed the same while gasoline has increased to 339.9-344.9. Maybe they are using a bigger percentage of crude to make diesel or.......just raising the price of gasoline in order to take the pressure off about the higher diesel cost. At any rate it's costing me more whether I fill up my truck or my wife's car.

richfaa · 04-09-2008, 02:55 PM

Well the price of a bbl of oil hit 110.87 today FOB NY gas 2.77 per gal, which means that Diesel would be about 3.30 per gal before any transportatiom cost, various tax's and reasonable profit along the way. The weak dollar hurts and..can you beleive it because of weak demand, which means folks can not afford to drive, refineries are cutting back on production (I did not make that up) It will only get worse.. We have no choice but to cut back on our Rv travels. It is going to cost us over 550.00 fuel and campgrounds to get to Northern Ohio from Florida. That is just too much..

http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/09/markets/eia/index.htm

Waynem · 04-09-2008, 03:39 PM

If the refineries are cutting back on production, it is going to affect their profits. I hope it hits them where it hurts. Profits reported have been astronomical as far as I'm concerned. when the Exxon/Mobile CEO resigned and got a $400 MILLION severance package, well, it's just ridiculous.

Edited: Old news but still RIDICULOUS

dsprik · 04-09-2008, 03:59 PM

Could be worse, Rich. You could planning your diesel/camping budget coming back to N. OH from AZ, like you did last year...

Actually, this is really not a joking matter. This is really going to hurt a lot of people. For us it has totally frozen any/all plans for travel this summer.

A very serious matter, as I see it, is that the refineries are cutting back on refining gasoline/diesel, purely for financial reasons - less profit right now. No one seems to know whats going on. The "experts" were taken by surprise (yet again) as our crude supplies fell dramatically in today's report. Yet refining dropped to 83% of capacity. If they are refining less, but we seem to be inexplicably losing our crude stocks, where the heck is our crude going??? It sure isn't being turned into fuel...

It seems like experts and government officials are encompassed in total confusion and chaos. We may need to open up our emergency oil reserves, if for nothing more than to calm down these recent college grad speculators from totally devastating our economy.

Whose bright idea was that to put world crude oil on the futures market anyway???

richfaa · 04-10-2008, 02:56 AM

The "experts" were taken by surprise (yet again) as our crude supplies fell dramatically in today's report. Yet refining dropped to 83% of capacity. "....... Meanwhile the average person on the street could have told the "experts" that they are using less fuel because they can't afford it. Sell 10 gallons of fuel for 1.00 per gallon or 5 gallons for 2.00 the profit is still there. We shake our fist at OPEC for "Controling" the fuel supply.Where is the outcry about good old Americans doing the very same thing???Dave we have you guys to thank for talking us into Florida 1100 miles instead of AZ 2200 miles and helping us with Disney where Helen did make some Diesel money..

Update...Went out to fuel the truck for tomorrows departure expecting diesel to be well above 4.00 per gallon as it was 4.03 last week. was surprised to see that it was at 3.96. It was at my usual circle K station . The plain wrapper truck was there filling the diesel tanks
and having a inquiring mind I asked him what was up with the diesel pricing. He said the word around the bulk depot was that they had more fuel than they could deliver. It was still coming down the pipeline and demand was down so much that there was no place to store it. He said his deliveries were way down.. Is there a storm brewing???? Who controls the fuel in the pipeline???and who can turn it down????

skypilot · 04-10-2008, 05:43 AM

The refineries control the fuel in the pipeline -- since demand is down, they aren't selling it from the bulk storage lots, etc... so, just like the auto manufacturers who do a plant shut-down of 2 or more weeks to let inventory levels decrease, the refineries have to cut down to let inventories down stream decrease. However, they can't just shut down those refineries - takes too long to shut down and then bring back up -- in some cases the companies shut them down and just don't bring them back up again -- we've got a couple of those here in Kansas that were shut down years ago and have been allowed to rust away -- real eye sores today -- but that is another issue.

In any case, it is a Catch22 or chicken-egg issue; we don't buy because we can't afford, so they decrease supply; then price goes up more as major oil companies (shareholders they claim) demand a 'modest' return on their investments. (Economic theory of supply and demand is not working because if it was the price would be going down right now, not up -- the companies should be lowering their prices to (1) move inventory and (2) increase demand for their product once again.)

What really throws me with that last link was the comment about decreased crude supplies catching people by surprise. First off - if refineries are running at less than full production (and several months ago they were at full capacity), where is all this shipboard crude being stored (it was pumped weeks, if not months ago and then shipped by large ocean tankers); and has anyone heard of OPEC curtailing production any where -- they didn't increase it any but I've not heard any news reports of OPEC meeting and reducing production. That would be big news on all channels... something is now right here!!!!!!

Oh well, rant over - time to go out and walk around this building and get back to grading papers.

richfaa · 04-10-2008, 01:54 PM

something is now right here!!!!!!

Good post skypilot..therefor my comment.."is there a storm brewing"

BirdingRVer · 04-11-2008, 04:16 AM

Here in Flagstaff the closest gas station to the RV Park we are staying at the price of diesel went from $3.89 to $3.99 to $4.11 all in just 3 days!

Other stations are running $3.89 to $4.01

skypilot · 04-11-2008, 04:59 AM

In the last 2 days, unleaded gas has gone from 3.059 to 3.399; diesel went from 3.949 to 4.159. Given that economists have projected gasoline to 3.60 or 4.00 per gallon, I expect the 4.00 to occur. This town has this habit of making such forecasts fact!!

brenkco · 04-11-2008, 07:25 AM

Wow, we just went to 4.479, up .20 in a day

richfaa · 04-11-2008, 01:59 PM

We were thrilled today to spend only 107.00 for 26 gallons of diesel fuel at a flying J on I 75 in GA.I care not what it cost. Helen is paying for the fuel for the trip home out of her "mouse"salary. She only had to work About 13 hours for that tank and it took us about 5 hours to spend it.....so what..its only money. Wait till we hit the mountains tomorrow..max boost..let the other guy pay..

c214dick · 04-12-2008, 01:23 PM

Just be happy that your're only paying $4+ per gallon for diesel and not taking the train.

http://www.komando.com/videos/4-12.asp

Check this out.

richfaa · 04-12-2008, 01:45 PM

Flying J's along I-75 from Florida are 3.969 to 3.999.. Less than I expected.

Searchers · 04-12-2008, 02:13 PM

Regular/$3.899, Diesel/$4.299 today in Mt. Shasta.

Waynem · 04-12-2008, 03:20 PM

Dick,.
I spent three years in Japan, 1979-1982. The Japanese people are a very polite society and they rely heavily on mass transportation. Their transportation system should be emulated here in the U.S. However, the one time that you will find the Japanese not polite is when they are trying to board a train, bus, or taxi. They will push and shove you out of the way to get on. You can stand at a bus stop and a bus will stop every 10 minutes going to the place you are going to. Even then, they will still push and shove to get on the first bus. That video says it all and is not a fabrication.

Fuel in Japan has always been higher. If I remember correctly, when I was there, a liter of gas was about $3.50. Fortunately we were able to purchase it through the military exchange and it was a dollar something.

Edited: In 1979 the value of the dollar was 315 Yen. In 1981-82 it was 120 Yen. In 2003 when visiting my son, it was 100 Yen to the dollar. So fuel on the economy is still very high.

bigmurf · 04-12-2008, 04:02 PM

Do those little Japs pull Montanas?

Waynem · 04-12-2008, 04:49 PM

You know, in all my travels in Japan I never saw one Montana being towed by any mode of transportation.

However, auto Camp-jo's (is what campgrounds are called) have become very popular.

The picture at the bottom of THIS link is self explanatory.
or THIS LINK

Well of course they have campers.
Hmm! If I keep looking I might find a Montana.

They do have some pretty impressive diesel trucks that would pull a Montana. You know, those Izuzu's that you see running around in the U.S. Well they have them there and they have the diesel kind along with gas - an they will haul.

Icehouse · 04-12-2008, 10:00 PM

Diesel in Seward has risen again. It is now $4.47/gallon. Gasoline (the "cheap" stuff) is now $3.94. I'm trying to talk Bernie into a Vespa with studded tires!
Tammy

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